Power, Power . . . We've Got the Power!, Part 2

When it comes to cultivating a stronger walk with God, do you ever get the nagging feeling that something's missing? Maybe you don't feel as enthralled as you once were. Perhaps the flame of passion you felt when you first became a Christian has dwindled down to a flicker. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll reminds us that God has installed His Spirit in all those who believe. Tragically, very few people have learned how to engage Him. If your soul is hungry for more, today's program is for you.

Chuck titled his message Power, Power, We've Got The Power. The normal and continual evidence is that I am a Christian would include I am in Christ. I live in Him and He lives in me.

I am able to live above sin's dominating control. Because I am a Christian, I have immediate access to the Father through prayer. Because you and I are Christians, we can forgive and should forgive whoever wrongs us.

We couldn't do that when we were lost. Because we are Christians, we worship with a purpose. Church is vital. We share our faith with others. We love and need other people. We need to be accountable. We need to have fellowship with them.

We need to keep the relationships open and caring. These are normal and continual lifestyle things in the Christian life and for that we are so grateful. I have not just described power living or power Christianity. Get that straight or you'll live your life disappointed and frustrated, always looking for more, more, more, more. I wouldn't take the heart out of any of you for anything but neither would I leave you with one tiny shred of unrealistic expectation or you'll soon be in a pastor's study talking about how God has let you down and he has not fulfilled his promise of power.

Get a life. The promise of power is ours because the spirit of power lives within. But this fantasy land concept of Christianity frustrates more than it thrills and I'm trying to keep you from being a frustrated believer. Well then how about being spirit filled? How about being spirit filled? When spirit filled, again here is a quick short list of one that could be much longer, I and you and I while spirit filled are surrounded by the spirit shield of protection continually, constantly, routinely. There isn't a moment of our life we're not protected under the spirit's umbrella and by the spirit's presence.

What a thought. Because we are filled with the spirit, we have an inner dynamic to handle life's pressures. Because we are filled with the spirit, we are able to be joyful regardless. Because spirit filled, we have the capacity to grasp the deep things of God which he discloses to us in his book. We need not seek a vision in the night, we need to seek truth from the book as it is printed for us in our language.

Thanks be to God. Because we are spirit filled, we have little difficulty maintaining a positive attitude of servanthood and humility. That's part of being spirit filled. You don't fight to get to the top or to seek the limelight while spirit filled, your thrill is to serve. While spirit filled, you and I have a keen sense of intuition and discernment.

We sense evil. I was in a place not long ago and I backed out of it with a friend and I said, let's not go any further, there's something wrong in there. And to this day I don't know what it was, but something in my spirit recoiled against something in that place.

I was traveling and happened to have been in Singapore, we went into the old India area and there was a temple, there was a Hindu temple there. And one of our traveling companions went in, I walked to the door, I backed away. There was something about it, I wasn't ready to encounter. I don't know why, I don't know how, I don't have a lot of those feelings, they're not normal, but I'll tell you when I need them, they're there and they come just when I need them.

They arrive and I have a stop sign that goes up in my head that says, don't do that, don't touch that, don't go in there, don't spend any more time with that person, stay away from that, or whatever. We have a keen sense of intuition and discernment. Because we are spirit filled we are able to love and be loved in return. We can be vulnerable and open because we have the spirit's feeling, we can rely on the spirit to intercede for us when we don't even know how to pray as we should. Because we are spirit filled we need never fear evil or demonic assault. We are enabled to stand alone with confidence. We experience inner promptings regarding decisions as well as right and wrong.

We have an internal filter system. We can actually live worry free. Is that remarkable? I'm not saying we do, I'm saying we can. We are never truly alone. Never truly alone.

You may go home to an empty apartment or townhouse or your own empty home and you may sense I am all alone and you are mistaken, my friend. You need to remember he who is with you is with you forever. Permanently, constantly your companion. He will not leave you as orphaned.

Here's one I added with my own pen not typed. Because I am spirit filled I have an intimate Abba relationship with the living God. He is my dad.

Isn't that great? When I buried my dad and my last parent he outlived my mother nine years. When I buried my dad for the first time I found myself even though adult and a father of four all alone. Something in me longed to still have my dad.

If for nothing else than a phone call to talk about something he would know better than I. And it came over me like a flood. I have the spirit of God to be my counselor.

My companion to the end. Again these are not exceptional, phenomenal things. They are routinely ours to enjoy and to claim because the spirit of God is filling us. This is not power spirituality.

This is not power filling. This is the normal spirit filled Christian life about which we say too little. Now the point. These are evidences of spirit filled power and frankly these are the kinds of things we need and can count on far more than periodic and exceptional moments of sheer ecstasy. And somebody needs to put that in proper perspective and I volunteer today. That's my role in this message. If nobody has told you before I'm telling you today these are things you can count on and you do not need the continual highly charged vision like reminders of the presence of the spirit of God.

Though there will be occasions when that might happen. If I may before I wrap all this up one more verse second Corinthians three seventeen. This made a whole new sense to me when I just meditated on it.

Just something about chewing on a verse. Second Corinthians please turn to that three seventeen. Now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.

Just look at that. Same thought is mentioned in Galatians four verse six but let's focus here on seventeen. Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. It's another word for freedom and I have listed a few freedoms. Freedom from constraint and from fear. You have that when you have and are filled by the spirit of the Lord. Freedom from tedious perfectionism, from confining life, from bondage, freedom from addictions, freedom to be, to do, to become free. I can think of nothing more needed than freedom and that comes from simply having the spirit. It isn't power freedom.

I think you're getting it now. It isn't as if some surge comes over me and I am caught up in an experience that most Christians just haven't tapped into. I don't know where that got started but I wish it would stop. Almost as if because I am spirit filled and because I have this unction, this power from God I don't even need to weep at funerals. Where did we learn that? When did we teach ourselves to apologize for tears of grief and loss?

Strange. I am free to cry just as I'm free to laugh. I'm free to be. As I bring this message to a close am I saying that we never, be careful here, that we never traffic in the miraculous?

No. Or that we should always consider the phenomenal with a suspicious eye discerning yes but not suspicious? No I'm not saying that. Am I saying that these things never occur from the Spirit of God?

No I am not. I've had a number of people over a given year come to me and say would you pray for, and they'll name a wife, a husband, a mother, a dad, a child, a friend who's dying with this dread disease. Doctors have given up hope. They've simply said look make sure the will is intact, death is coming and they've said would you just pray? Would you just pray for that person?

And I'll say yes of course. But have I a right to promise that individual that person will live? I am not God. I pray for God's glory to be manifested. I pray if it is his will to bring a miracle to pass and cause it to be connected only with him I pray that he will give strength to these who grieve alongside those that they are losing. But I can make no power promise of rising from the deathbed.

Neither can anyone else. That is voodoo Christianity. It is not biblical truth. And we do people a disservice by holding out the carrot as if they can someday catch it and eat it. I offer three final thoughts that will calm you if this kind of message has made you uneasy.

Let me preface my remarks by addressing a broader subject. The spirit of God is in fact God. We are not dealing with a small part of a bigger portion. The person and work of the triune God, immortal, invisible, in light and accessible hid from our eyes, wrote Walter Chalmers Smith. Our God is incomprehensible. He is infinite in nature. Much of his work is beyond our comprehension.

He is limitless. He is mysterious and at times obscure. And I find humanly speaking a bit confusing and illogical. But that's my problem not his. Because I cannot unravel his tapestry or the work of his hands, it doesn't mean there's something wrong with his plan. It means I can't understand it. So far the Naamathite said to Job in his utter despair, can we by searching find out God?

The implication is no. Friends, let's let God be God. Let's not feel that we must explain every part of him as one of my mentors used to say, you cannot unscrew the inscrutable. Leave it screwed up tight.

Leave it capped. Call it a mystery. Say I don't know three times a day for the rest of your life.

It's good for you. So that when the work of God comes down and you are a part of it and can't explain it, say again, I don't know. I just know it's from him.

I just know it's the way he works. So then with that in mind I conclude, first I want to say God is a God of the miraculous. Don't you ever tell anybody Swindoll doesn't believe in the miraculous or you will be stating wrong information. God is a God of the miraculous, therefore miracles do occur. Scripture suggests, let me caution you, Scriptures suggest that those miracles are occasional and they are exceptions, not the norm, but they do occur.

They do not occur these days on command. They occur when God in his marvelous, mysterious, inscrutable plan designs that they occur and he has them happen, more often in spite of us than anything else. God is a God of the miraculous, therefore miracles do occur. Second, God is a God of the supernatural, therefore supernatural phenomena occur. Scripture suggests that they are occasional and they are exceptional, not routine, but phenomenal things occur. Be careful what you tag miraculous or phenomenal.

Don't toss those words around. It's like the word awesome. Now everything is awesome. Toyotas are awesome. Ball players are awesome.

Nonsense. God is awesome. God is awesome. And if he is pleased to do a work of the miraculous, praise his name, I stand back and applaud it and would not even attempt to explain it.

If I could, it wouldn't be a miracle, but I don't expect it every day. I'm surprised when I encounter one in a lifetime, but I have and I stand in awe. Third, God is a God of the mysterious, therefore mysterious things occur which we cannot explain.

However, Scriptures suggest, I remind you again, they are occasional and they are exceptional. Verily, God is of infinite greatness, said one theologian. More than we think, unknowable by created things, he can never be comprehended by us as he is in himself. But even here and now, whenever the heart begins to burn with a desire for God, he is made able to receive the uncreated light and inspired and fulfilled by the gifts of the Holy Ghost, he tastes the joys of heaven. He transcends all visible things and is raised to the sweetness of eternal life.

Herein truly is perfect love. Men and women, as best I can leave this with you, these are evidences of the Spirit-filled life and I hope they add balance to your theology in an imbalanced age where people every day, unfortunately, expect a miracle. And when they don't get one, I find it interesting they cheapen the word by calling things that can be explained otherwise miracles.

As Abraham Lincoln said on one occasion, calling a tail a dog don't make no tail a dog. Calling natural events a miracle don't make no natural events miracles. I have a very good friend whose son has been through an incredibly difficult period of time.

I have ached with him and his wife Cynthia and I have prayed for them as much as anyone in the last number of months. It looked as though everything was going awry, things got only worse, and they happened to discover through the assistance of medical help and a very gifted, insightful physician a particular technique that tapped them into the source of the problem. And the boy has recovered incredibly. It would be my tendency and yours to say, miraculous. It isn't. It is in fact a very, very scientific, carefully honed procedure of diagnosis and treatment that worked. Was God in it?

Absolutely. He alone can heal. Others diagnose. But as the process worked its way through, the diagnosis latched up with the need, and this little fellow has gotten his ducks in a row and is well on his way to full recovery, for which we praise God.

But it wasn't a power healing. Max Windahl titled today's message on the Holy Spirit, Power, Power, We've Got the Power. Don't rush away because we've set aside several minutes at the close of today's program to hear some final teaching points from Chuck.

This is Insight for Living. To learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit us online at insightworld.org. As a special resource for you, remember that Chuck wrote a book that parallels our current teaching series. It's called Embraced by the Spirit, the Untold Blessings of Intimacy with God.

To purchase a copy right now, go to insight.org slash store. Bear in mind that while you're listening to Chuck's teaching today, you're joined with fellow listeners around the world. Many of them are just learning how to walk in the Spirit, and some are veterans of the faith. But there's a common thread of gratitude in the messages we receive. God is using insight for living to transform the hearts of willing listeners through the power of our companion, the Holy Spirit. These transformational stories are made possible in part because people like you give voluntary financial gifts. And if you're among those who give, let me encourage you with the comment we received. Recently, someone who listens from Edmonds, Washington said, You don't know me, but you've been my pastor for more than a decade now. Your dedication and passion have drawn me into the word. I understand that your humility requires you to rebuff all direct praise.

Rightly so. Praise be to him. I just wanted to say thank you. Well, these special moments are made possible by those who support insight for living.

And if you're among our monthly companions, we hope this brief story encourages you to keep up the good work. To give a donation today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888.

Or you can give online at insight.org slash donate. And now, back to Chuck. Let's pause for a moment and just think about what we have heard today. In a sincere effort to find deeper intimacy with God, many Christians have reversed the biblical reality of Spirit-filled living. And they have attempted to make the miraculous their normative experience.

Maybe you're one of them. Everything then becomes a power encounter. We don't simply pray anymore. We offer power prayers.

We don't simply witness. We conduct power evangelism. I've even heard of power healings, power preaching, power miracles, and power revelations, just to name a few.

Power has become one of the end terms of our times. And frankly, it's been overused and abused even by Christians. So I caution you to be careful, my Christian friend, not to measure your intimacy with God by power or miraculous experiences. To do so will only result in your setting up expectations that will let you down.

And ultimately, trust me on this, will lead you astray. Let the Spirit of God wield all the power He may choose to wield, not you. You stay focused on being faithful. Intimacy with God flourishes in a context of obedience.

That is where your love for Him reaches maturity. Remember these Spirit-inspired words from the apostle John. From his 14th chapter, If you love me, you will keep my commandments, said Jesus. He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me shall be loved by my Father.

Yet I will love him, and will disclose myself to him. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. The one who says, I have come to know him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.

By this we know that we are in him. The one who says he abides in him ought himself to walk in the same manner as he walked. 1 John 2, verses 3 through 6, and then in the same letter, chapter 5, verse 3, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. 2 John 6, And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments.

This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it. Now will you bow with me in prayer? Father, thank you for the way you have spoken to us today, from your word and the application of it.

Deliver us from instant anything that has to do with spiritual truths. Show us the value of a long obedience in the same direction, of finding a satisfying joy in trusting you, even when the way isn't clear, and even when the pain endures. Reveal to us in fresh and new ways that you are pleased by our faith, as we wait upon you to do whatever you may sovereignly choose to do. Show us how immature it is to plan out our way and then set up our expectations according to that, rather than to seek your way and your will, knowing that as a result all the other things will be added unto it. We commit to you the truth that we have heard, and I pray specifically for those who, in pain today, are trusting you to get them through it. Provide the means, Lord, and you be honored and glorified through it all, lest any other person take the glory that belongs only to you. I ask this and we ask this together, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.